Intel (INTC) had me at the Iron Man reference. While INTC stock didn’t exactly storm out of the gate because of it, Intel nonetheless stole the show at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), introducing among other things … A “smart bowl” that will wirelessly charge your phone and other gadgets. A “smart onesie” that lets parents monitor their baby’s vital signs. My personal favorite: Jarvis, a smart, always-on Bluetooth earpiece that essentially does what the iPhone’s Siri does, but without having the inconvenience of taking your phone out of your pocket.
What does this mean to those of us who don’t speak geek fluently? In a nutshell, rather than run as a “me too” smartphone manufacturer or mobile chip maker, INTC is taking the lead in making your appliances, gadgets and, yes, even your clothes talk to each other. And its vehicle for doing this is Edison, a Pentium-class computer the size and shape of an SD card you might put in a digital camera. Despite its small size, it has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. If Intel wants to be a true growth stock again, it needs to create fundamentally new markets. And the Edison platform has the potential to do that.